The Mom

I copied this directly off of my friend's blog because I loved it.

Mom is the one who . . .
. . . opens the windows to let in the light.
. . . eats the broken graham crackers.
. . . makes a sandwich for herself out of the heels of the bread.
. . . has a coat for every child, but forgets one for herself.
. . . knows where the clean socks are.
. . . runs towards a sick child, not away from the sick child.
. . . hears you cough in the middle of the night.

My Christmas Projects

We had a really tough time coming up with an idea for what to give the doctors at Chad's work. Finally 6 days before Christmas I came up with the idea to make them wreaths. Now this wasn't an entirely brilliant plan because I'd never made a wreath before. But several hours at the craft store (I Heart Hobby Lobby) and a couple hours at home, and VOILA!! this is what I came up with.

This one has two little mittens with snowflakes on them, so the big white snowflake really does fit in.

You can't see it, but there is a little bird (not a real one) in a nest on the lower right side. It was really cute.

Christmas, New Years, and Sledding

Christmas was great. We all shared some kind of stomach bug that week, so we weren't sure how things were going to go, but by Christmas we were doing okay. We did the Nativity story with the kids on Christmas Eve. Caleb and Natalie were Joseph and Mary. Claire was a shepherd. The Wise Men were played by the kids' dolls. The gifts were gold (a penny), frankincense (a tip to a nasal aspirator), and myrrh (and Italian bud vase). It was so fun.

For New Years we had some of Chad's family over to eat good food and play fun games. We played Uno Attack (or whatever its called) and that was really fun. We also played Yahtzee Free-for-All. Now Yahtzee is one of my most favorite games to play (probably because its one of the few games that I can beat Chad at every once in a while). Yahtzee Free-for-All wasn't at all what I expected it to be.... I expected everyone has their own set of dice and everyone plays at the same time and the first person done gets extra points and then the person with the hightest score wins. Thats not it at all, but it was fun. Chad thinks he likes it better than the original, but I think he just said that because he beat me.

The Saturday after New Years we got about 6 inches of snow. It was very exciting. We decided to take the kids sledding. Claire wasn't really into it, mostly because it was interrupting her nap time, but Caleb and Natalie had a great time. They want to go again this weekend, but that probably won't happen unless we get more snow. But maybe!

Claire's Birthday

On Dec. 21st Claire turned 1. I can't believe how quickly the year has gone. She has been so much fun. Here are a few things about her. She loves to smile for a camera. If you hold a camera up, she'll smile. She loves to laugh at her big brother and sometimes her big sister. Claire is quite the dare-devil. Her favorite place to play is the stairs, which really makes me nervous much of the time, but she hasn't taken a spill yet. She copies sounds and motions made by her older siblings. She loves to eat, and she will eat almost anything. She has decided lately to throw fits when she doesn't get what she wants, and boy can she throw a fit! She isn't walking yet but is getting more confident every day, so it won't be long. She's tall (97th percentile for height) and skinny (10th percentile for weight), and I suspect she will pass both of her older siblings in height eventually. And she's absolutely adorable, but I'm probably biased. Her first word was "kitty!"

Her cake was really fun to make. Its the Baby Einstein caterpillar.

She loved the cupcake we gave her.

November Pictures

Practicing the "Violin"

Natalie came out of her bedroom at 10:00 one night and was being goofy. She decided that she and I needed to have orange noses. So we got orange noses. She's a goof.

Helping Mom pack


Pretty girl

All eyes

Such a big girl!

October Pictures

The Pumpkin Patch

Halloween

Sisters

Why haven't I blogged in 6 weeks?

I know, I know... Finally an updated blog! Sorry. My life has been crazy, and I've realized that I waste too much time on the internet if I turn the computer on. I say I'm only going to take 5 minutes, but in the end its 5 hours. And my family suffers. So now it is almost 11 p.m. and I'm going to write a few things for all of you who have been DYING to know what is going on in our lives.

Halloween is such an interesting thing... does anyone else find it strange that we dress up in costumes--sometimes scarey costumes--and go to parties at the church? Or is it just me? Anyway. For preschool Natalie was Cinderella. Same dress as last year. But for our ward party she decided to be a cowgirl. Now, this little green outfit has gotten a lot of mileage... It was Chad's. He won it in a fishing pond thing at a ward party when he was about 5. Chad's cousin, Kent, who is significantly younger than Chad, wore it A LOT when he was that size. Caleb has used it for at least 2 Halloweens. And now Natalie has joined the club. She was such a cute little cowgirl. Caleb was Davey Crockett. He loves Davey Crockett and our friends had this totally cool outfit that Caleb borrowed. Claire was a marshmellow. (If you don't know the background of this, when I was expecting Claire our kids insisted her name was going to be marshmellow.) I did wear a witch hat. But it was fun. Candy, hooray. Much of it is still in a bowl on top of the fridge... out of sight out of mind, although I do allow them to imbibe on occasion.

November was busy. Thanksgiving was wonderful. We went to Idaho to visit my family. We were gone a week, drove almost 2000 miles, spent over 25 hours in the car, ate lots of food, and had a great time. For my birthday, my sister and her husband took Chad and me to dinner at The Melting Pot. I LOVE LOVE LOVE fondue. It was DELICIOUS. Thursday was Thanksgiving. Yummy food. Lots to be thankful for. Did a little shopping on Black Friday, but not until 10:00 so we didn't have to fight the crowds too much.

Saturday was my family's Christmas party in Pocatello, which was a great time. Thanks everyone for making it fun. We missed those who weren't there.

Monday we decided to take the long way home. We left Pocatello about 2 and drove to Salt Lake. I'd never seen Temple Square when it was all lit up for Christmas, so we decided to do it. It was so beautiful. And it was nice to just be together as a family and spend time with each other. We went into the Visitor's Center and saw the Christus statue and looked at some of the displays. Then we just walked around outside. By the time we left it was 7, so we got home at 2 a.m. It was totally worth it though. Tonight at FHE we were talking about the temple and Chad asked the kids their favorite part about going to the temple. Natalie said, "Going into the building and seeing the big statue of Jesus." Caleb said, "Seeing the Nativity outside." They felt the Spirit of the place and hopefully they will remember that. The extra time was worth it.

So it was a whirlwind of a week, but it was worth it. Memories were made. Good times were had by all.